english 
deutsch 
français 
Work of the Week – Viktor Ullmann: Der Kaiser von Atlantis
- By Christopher Peter
- 22 Dec 2025
Japanese Premiere: Viktor Ullmann's "The Emperor of Atlantis," composed in Terezín in 1943. A timeless plea against tyranny.
Tagged with 'Tokyo'
Work of the Week – Toshio Hosokawa: Natasha
- By Christopher Peter
- 10 Aug 2025
On August 11, 2025, the New National Theatre Tokyo will host the world premiere of a remarkable new opera: Natasha by Toshio Hosokawa. Under the musical direction of Kazushi Ono and staged by Christian Räth, this opera confronts some of the most pressing issues of our time.
Work of the Week – Peter Eötvös: Harp Concerto
- By Christopher Peter
- 15 Jan 2024
A new concerto for a celebration: Peter Eötvös's 80th birthday will be celebrated with a symposium and gala concert in Paris next weekend. Among other works by the Hungarian composer, his new Harp Concerto will see its world premiere. Eötvös wrote the concerto for harp and orchestra for the virtuoso Xavier de Maistre (pictured), who will perform it for the first time on 18 January with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France conducted by Gergely Madaras at the Maison de le Radio et de la Musique.
Work of the Week – Joji Yuasa: Locus of the Orchestra
- 21 Aug 2023
A Belated Birthday Celebration: On 25 August 2023, as part of the Composer’s birthday celebrations, the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra will present the world premiere of Joji Yuasa’s, Locus of the Orchestra, with Yoichi Sugiyama once more at the musical helm in Tokyo.
Work of the Week – Akiko Yamane: Arcade
- 24 Aug 2020
On 26 August, Arcade, a new 20-minute orchestral work by Akiko Yamane will receive its world premiere at Suntory Hall, Tokyo. The concert, which is part of the 2020 Suntory Summer Festival will be given by the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Yoichi Sugiyama.
Yamane describes Arcade as drawing on the idea of drone music that programmatically expresses a consumerist society where the needs and desires of the people are seemingly under control. Below the surface, however, their internal desires and contradictions become apparent. Arcade has been commissioned by the Suntory Arts Foundation.
Photos: Adobe Stock / topntp, Coco
Yamane describes Arcade as drawing on the idea of drone music that programmatically expresses a consumerist society where the needs and desires of the people are seemingly under control. Below the surface, however, their internal desires and contradictions become apparent. Arcade has been commissioned by the Suntory Arts Foundation.
Akiko Yamane – Arcade: State of uncertainty within a fragile society
I seek to depict this idea with a quality of sound that a person can feel on their skin. The sound fluctuates according to subtle changes within the listener’s body, or in accordance with a particular place or space and so on. In this piece, I stop and turn my attention to the various layers of sound and focus on their essence. Akiko Yamane
Photos: Adobe Stock / topntp, Coco
Work of the Week – Toshio Hosokawa: Meditation to the victims of Tsunami (3.11)
- 6 Apr 2020
+++ After the following story was published, we learned that the concert and live-streaming had to be cancelled as well. +++
On 11 April, the NHK Symphony Orchestra will perform Toshio Hosokawa’s Meditation to the victims of Tsunami (3.11) as part of a livestream concert conducted by Masaru Kumakura. The concert has been organised to replace the orchestra’s scheduled public performance in response to ongoing restrictions of COVID-19.
Born in Hiroshima following World War II, Hosokawa has composed a number of works (including Memory of the Sea and Voiceless Voice in Hiroshima) that express a deeply personal connection to those who have found themselves victims to disasters – both present and historical. Remarking that the Tohoku Earthquake on 11 March 2011 gave him pause to contemplate more deeply what it is ‘to live’, Hosokawa draws listeners’ attention to the strength of people in the face of the unimaginable.
In recent works, Meditation to the victims of Tsunami (3.11), a mourning for the victims of Tsunami, Klage, in which a mother could heal her deep sorrow by singing, and Nach dem Sturm depicting a flower that experienced storm gradually regaining the world of light, Hosokawa expressed fear of primitive power and the terror of nature, and the anger against irrationality that we are threatened by nuclear power we ourselves created. His work coexists with each of these, finding space between them to illuminate the resilience of humanity.
On 11 April, the NHK Symphony Orchestra will perform Toshio Hosokawa’s Meditation to the victims of Tsunami (3.11) as part of a livestream concert conducted by Masaru Kumakura. The concert has been organised to replace the orchestra’s scheduled public performance in response to ongoing restrictions of COVID-19.
Born in Hiroshima following World War II, Hosokawa has composed a number of works (including Memory of the Sea and Voiceless Voice in Hiroshima) that express a deeply personal connection to those who have found themselves victims to disasters – both present and historical. Remarking that the Tohoku Earthquake on 11 March 2011 gave him pause to contemplate more deeply what it is ‘to live’, Hosokawa draws listeners’ attention to the strength of people in the face of the unimaginable.
In recent works, Meditation to the victims of Tsunami (3.11), a mourning for the victims of Tsunami, Klage, in which a mother could heal her deep sorrow by singing, and Nach dem Sturm depicting a flower that experienced storm gradually regaining the world of light, Hosokawa expressed fear of primitive power and the terror of nature, and the anger against irrationality that we are threatened by nuclear power we ourselves created. His work coexists with each of these, finding space between them to illuminate the resilience of humanity.
My musical idea is to find harmony between nature and humans. Therefore, the tsunami of 2011 was a great shock to me. Nature just isn’t only nice and beautiful, it can also be cruel sometimes. We Japanese seem to have lost our respect for nature. - Toshio Hosokawa
Work of the Week – Toru Takemitsu: Nostalghia
- 12 Sep 2016
Toru Takemitsu’s Nostalghia for violin and orchestra will be performed on 13 September in the Martinskirche in Basel, and on 14 September in St. Peter's Church in Zurich, by violinist Ilya Gringolts and the I Tempi chamber orchestra conducted by Gevorg Gharabekyan.
Composed in 1987 for Yehudi Menuhin, Nostalghia draws inspiration from Andrei Tarkovsky’s 1983 film of the same name, and its central theme of homesickness. While the word nostalgia refers to desire for a time since past, in both Russian and Italian nostalghia means to acutely miss a place or a person.
Nostalghia - “In Memory of Andrei Tarkovsky”
Takemitsu was attracted to the quiet camera work, sparing use of music, and tendency for long uncut scenes in Tarkovsky’s film, and after the filmmaker’s death in 1986 he dedicated Nostalghia to Tarkovsky’s memory. After a brief introduction, a simple solo violin melody dominates the composition, seeking to evoke a sense of memory, loss and longing. Maintaining the contrasts characteristically found in Tarkovsky’s films, Takemitsu uses a divided string orchestra beneath the violin to musically represent the differing states of water and fog. At the work’s end, the orchestral groups divide again into polyphony, while the solo violin remains in the highest heights.
I would like to follow both Japanese tradition and Western innovation, and to maintain both musical styles simultaneously has become the core focus of my compositional operations. It is a contradiction I do not want to solve – on the contrary, I want the two styles to combat each other. I want to achieve a sound that is as intense as the silence. – Toru Takemitsu
The same concert will also feature Karl Amadeus Hartmann's Concerto funebre for solo violin and string orchestra. On 14 and 15 September, the NHK Symphony Orchestra conducted by Paavo Järvi will play Takemitsu’s A Way a Lone II arranged for string quartet and How Slow the Wind for orchestra in the Suntory Hall in Tokyo. Also on 15 September, the Tokyo Sinfonietta conducted by Yasuaki Itakura will perform Rain Coming in the Supporo Concert Hall Kitara in Hokkaido. On 16 September, Pirmin Grehl plays Itinerant for flute at the Schumann Festival in Leipzig, and a day later the Philharmonic State Orchestra Mainz performs Night Signal at the theatre festival Mainz, conducted by Hermann Bäumer.
Work of the Week - Fazıl Say: Ballad
- 18 Jul 2016
On 18 July this week, Fazıl Say’s Ballad for alto saxophone and orchestra will receive its world premiere in Tokyo with the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra conducted by Miguel Harth-Bedoya. Say composed the work for Japanese saxophonist Nobuya Sugawa, who will perform as soloist.
Born in Ankara in 1970, Say began playing the piano aged four and began composing as a teenager at Ankara conservatoire. Today, as internationally acclaimed composer and concert pianist, his keen interest in jazz, improvisation and traditional music influences much of his work and provides elements that are frequently incorporated into his compositions.
Say composed Ballad in a style allowing the soloist the opportunity to explore the full sonic possibilities of the saxophone's tonal range. Beginning with a long lyrical meditation evoking a search for peace, soft drum beats provide a backdrop reminiscent of the ocean.
July has been a particularly busy month for Say with the composer himself performing as soloist for his piano concerto China Rhapsody with the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra conducted by Long Yu on 15 July, and looking ahead The Hong Kong Sinfonietta Orchestra performing his piano concerto Silk Road on 23 July conducted by Yip Wing-sie. On 14 August Say will give a recital including four of his solo piano works, Bodrum, Paganini Jazz, Alla Turca Jazz and Summertime Variations at the Mosel-Musikfestival in Bernkastel-Kues.
Born in Ankara in 1970, Say began playing the piano aged four and began composing as a teenager at Ankara conservatoire. Today, as internationally acclaimed composer and concert pianist, his keen interest in jazz, improvisation and traditional music influences much of his work and provides elements that are frequently incorporated into his compositions.
Fazıl Say’s Ballad – full of sonic possibilities
Say composed Ballad in a style allowing the soloist the opportunity to explore the full sonic possibilities of the saxophone's tonal range. Beginning with a long lyrical meditation evoking a search for peace, soft drum beats provide a backdrop reminiscent of the ocean.
All my compositions, as indeed my life does, take place between these two musical lineages (oriental and occidental). Turkish music has a stronger rhythmical character, German music has a great history. Both cultures interact with each other. - Fazıl Say
July has been a particularly busy month for Say with the composer himself performing as soloist for his piano concerto China Rhapsody with the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra conducted by Long Yu on 15 July, and looking ahead The Hong Kong Sinfonietta Orchestra performing his piano concerto Silk Road on 23 July conducted by Yip Wing-sie. On 14 August Say will give a recital including four of his solo piano works, Bodrum, Paganini Jazz, Alla Turca Jazz and Summertime Variations at the Mosel-Musikfestival in Bernkastel-Kues.
